British Sikh racially abused, branded ‘Muslim terrorist’ at Polish club

London: A British Sikh was spat at, punched in the face and branded a “Muslim terrorist” as he tried to enter a Polish nightclub in Krakow last month, a media report said on Thursday.

Nav Sawhney, 25, travelled to Poland’s Krakow city on November 27 for a weekend with a friend when he was subjected to a verbal and physical attack by the nightclub bouncer, the Evening Standard reported.

Sawhney along with friends decided to visit the club after reading positive reviews about it. But when the group arrived there, Sawhney’s friends, who are all white, were allowed into the club while he was refused entry.

“The bouncer stopped me and said I was not allowed in. I asked why very calmly and after a few minutes passed, he was shouting at me and spitting at me and was very aggressive,” Sawhney said.

“My friend came down the stairs (in the club) and asked why I was not allowed in. It was said that there was a dress code. But my friend said we are dressed exactly the same.”

“(The bouncer) pointed at my turban and said ‘that hat, Muslim terrorist’. They were being really aggressive,” the daily quoted him as saying.

The 25-year-old decided to shake hands with the bouncers when Sawhney said he was punched in the face with such force that it caused his turban to come off and fall to the ground.

“I am thick skinned, but it was at that point when my turban came off and I was called a terrorist, I knew it was racially motivated.”

Police arrived 30 minutes later, but told Sawhney and his friend to keep off the streets as it was unsafe.

A spokesperson for the club in Krakow said Sawhney was refused entry into the club, along with many Poles, because it was full and said they treat “everyone equally”.

“Nav was not being offended, spat at or beaten. Nevertheless, having in mind your doubts, security guards who were on duty that night were suspended immediately from performing their duties until the situation is clarified by the police,” the spokesperson added.

In a message on Sawhney’s Facebook page, a spokesperson from Polish embassy in Britain said: “We are very sorry about what happened to you.”

Race has always been a big deal whenever its been spoken about around the globe. Pic by Dr. Munish Raizada taken at the Race exhibition at Chicago History Museum. November 2017

-By Dr Kumar Mahabir

Even academics like me who often view certain topics through the lens of race sometimes

receive negative attention and judgement. Some people feel that speaking or writing

rationally about race is counter-productive and even racist.

Indo-Caribbean people (Indians), in particular, tend to receive condemnation when they

examine topics on the basis of race. Indian victims are often criticised for reporting

discrimination.

On the other hand, Afro-Caribbeans (Africans) receive either indifference or praise when they discuss race. For example, the following comment by a black calypsonian, published in a Trinidad national newspaper, drew praises: “In the midst of black consciousness in the 1970s, Bro Superior told black people ‘No matter where yuh born, Yuh still African’” (Guardian Nov 12, 2017).

Discussing race objectively with empirical data and statistical evidence is not racist. Racism

is the belief that another race of people is inferior. This attitude results in discrimination,

appropriate social categories of difference in examining historical and contemporary issues.

Why should someone who talks objectively about race be criticised as a racist? Should we

also condemn someone who uses sex as a mode of inquiry as being sexist? To do so would be ignorant, biased and unfair.

In a recent public broadcast, the Prime Minister of multi-racial Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)

advised some citizens “not to see race in everything we do” (Express Sept 22, 2017). This ill- informed statement was made in relation to the mixed responses he received when he

appealed to citizens to open their homes to displaced Dominican refugees who were devastated by Hurricane Maria.

On the contrary, people should be encouraged to “see race” as well as sex (gender), class, nationality, geography and types of social identity. Studying race can reveal differences in the form of disparities, disadvantages, inequalities, power and privilege which have structured human life in the past and present. To overlook race would be to ignore the elephant in the room.

Criminologist and social psychologist Dr Ramesh Deosaran wrote a book entitled Inequality,

Crime & Education in Trinidad and Tobago: Removing the Masks (2016). He found that there was a toxic relationship among race, class, gender, family and geography, resulting in African students performing the worst in the education system.

Deosaran wrote: “Wittingly or unwittingly, the education system, to a large extent, becomes a racially segregated system. And with academic achievement also stratified by race” (page 163). His data showed that while 47% of African students went to university three years after secondary school, as much as 72% of Indians did so, and 49% of the Mixed group also attended.

Prospective students of Whitman College in the USA are encouraged to enrol in its Race and Ethnic Studies programme. They are told that “ideas about race and ethnicity have been central at many points in world history and remain salient today, whether we talk about ethnic pride or ethnic cleansing, about multicultural diversity or racial discrimination.”

human rights, gender, political science, economics, geography, public policy, international

relations, social psychology, etc.

In a research paper entitled “Understanding race and crime in Trinidad and Tobago,”

criminologist Dr Randy Seepersad (2017) found that most of the murderers, victims, accused and prisoners are Africans. His disaggregated data demonstrated that most of the violent crimes are committed by blacks against blacks.

In 2011, former National Security Minister John Sandy said, “We must recognise that it is

people looking like me who are being murdered, mothers like my mother, God rest her soul, who are out there weeping more than any other race” (Express Sep 3, 2011).

Race has always been a major factor in voting in all general elections in T&T. This form of

ethnic polarisation has been well documented by pollsters such as SARA, NACTA, ANSA

McAl and H.H.B. & Associates Ltd. Most Africans and Mixed persons support the PNM

while most Indians vote for the PP/UNC.

Dr. Kumar Mahabir is an anthropologist who has published 11 books. He lives in Trinidad.